A close look at the genre conventions shows that protagonist, Sam Spade, has all the ingredients of a hard-boiled detective. What I found more interesting than the particulars of the detective conventions, was Hammett's narrative voice.
Hammett's narrator was like a movie camera. The narrator never penetrated Sam Spade's tough armor to pierce through to his inner thoughts and feelings. Everything was reported as though a court stenographer was witnessing it and writing it down- except that every single surface detail Hammett chose to report was carefully selected, meant to color our view of the events and characters.
At first I was put off by this style. Why the heck should I care about the angle of Sam Spade's head as he rolled his cigarette? Descriptions of femme fatale, Brigid O'Shaughnessy, bordered on the teenage obsessive, reporting each twitch of her lips, lean of her head, and minute gesture.
But when the author refuses to let the reader into a single thought or feeling of any character, and the narrative voice is as neutral as a black and white photo, the only means of expressing character is through dialog and action. All the minute details of how cigarettes were smoked, coffee drunk, and eggs eaten, add up to build a character.
This approach to characterization makes the reader experience the same sense of ambiguity as the characters in the story- the reader feels at once as though they know Sam Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy very well, and at the same time, wouldn't want to bet their lives on what either character will do next.
However, Sam and Brigid are betting their lives on how well they understand each other's character and motivation. It is this suspense, not the particulars of the mystery, that powers the captivating tale of the Maltese Falcon.
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